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World's Fastest Cells Raced On Petri Dish

Posted by timothy on from the stick-timekeeping-duties-to-the-intern dept.

ananyo writes "In a tongue-in-cheek contest of microscopic mobility, a line of bone marrow stem cells from Singapore beat out dozens of competitors to claim the title of the world's fastest cells. They whizzed across a petri dish at the breakneck speed of 5.2 microns per minute — or 0.000000312 kilometers per hour."

6 of 61 comments (clear)

  1. Speed demons by masternerdguy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Still faster than congress debating a bill.

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  2. Misleading summary by tpjunkie · · Score: 5, Informative

    They were simply the fastest cells that were among those that were raced; many cells from various species of protists, not to mention sperm cells are capable of faster speeds than that.

    1. Re:Misleading summary by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      Although my sperm normally moves at one-quarter impulse, it can achieve warp 9.7 for up to 3 hours.

      Your boyfriend farting doesn't count as self-mobility so the 9.7 warp data is invalid.

    2. Re:Misleading summary by MrIlios · · Score: 3, Funny

      Sperm cells were not allowed to enter this particular event as they were registered for the sack race...

  3. Re:0.000000312 kph is XXX in scale speed? by Samantha+Wright · · Score: 4, Funny

    theres about 60 minutes in an hour

    About sixty? Now I'm scared.

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  4. Wait for it... by RobinEggs · · Score: 3, Funny

    This story will definitely break slashdot's sperm joke record